The present invention relates to a timing device for use with a golf bag and more particularly to a golf bag having an integral timing device for keeping golfers abreast of both the time of day and the elapsed time during a round of golf.
The pace of play on golf courses is an issue of considerable importance to both the course owners and clubs and the golfing public. It is essential to good management of the game that play proceed at a prescribed rate. A round of golf should be played in four to four and one half hours. On busy days it is essential that players finish their rounds in no more than four and one half hours. This means that, on average, a hole should be completed every fifteen minutes.
Most golfers find watches a hindrance or a distraction and they frequently put them in their golf bags or pockets, out of the way and inaccessible. Thus, such golfers do not have a good way of monitoring their time on the course.
This leads on occasion to slow play but the group playing slow may have no idea that they are behind schedule.
In the past timepieces have been proposed which may be clipped to golf bags. These having taken various forms and are illustrated in the following U.S. Patents: Ohren, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 384,587; Johnson et al., U.S. Pat. No. Des. 319,084; Tak, U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,579.
Various timing devices have also been proposed in order to maintain pace of play. For example, Coleman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,487, shows a timer having displays for elapsed time, the identification of the proper hole, and time of day.
The problem with the designs described above is that there is no convenient way to integrate the timer with a golf bag in a way that allows full use of the timer while keeping it impervious to the elements. Clocks that clip on to the bag in various ways become dangling pieces of hardware that fall off, are broken or get wet and cease to function.